Founded on a faith-based mission, National Church Residences (NCR) has grown from a flagship community to the nation’s largest non-profit provider of senior housing in the country. Today, the organization owns and/or operates 340 senior housing communities in 25 states, including 1,355 homes in eight communities in Atlanta.
Jerrie O’Rourke has been the organization’s Corporate Director of Senior Care Management with National Church Residences for the last three years. In the Q&A below, she shares some lessons learned from the pandemic, thoughts on what’s next for the affordable housing industry, and much more.
Tell us about National Church Residences.
National Church Residences has a long-standing history of coordinating services for seniors. As a leader in affordable housing, we support over 30,000 seniors. We know that population health management and addressing social determinants of health for seniors is the key to the future of healthcare in terms of controlling costs and achieving better outcomes.
I lead several innovative initiatives to deliver high quality, person-centric programing for seniors. These programs support our holistic vision to advance better living for all seniors, with a focus on assisting those residing within our buildings, as well as the surrounding community.
What will Section 4 funds help your organization accomplish?
National Church Residences has been receiving support from Enterprise since 2012, including as proud recipients of Section 4 funding. Recent grant dollars helped NCR reach seniors with our new Home for Life model of service pilot program at local properties. Past Section 4 grant funds helped us launch new local service partnerships, supported hurricane relief projects, and allowed us to assess healthcare and housing initiatives.
How did Covid-19 impact National Church Residences and the residents you serve?
The vulnerability of unsupported senior residents was exasperated by Covid-19, as most were isolated and alone at home with limited support and connectivity to the outside world. NCR had to quickly change how we delivered support to seniors at our properties and in the community.
While the “digital divide” posed a significant challenge for seniors, we needed to utilize technology to help them access healthcare and increase socialization. NCR deployed a Rapid Response Service Coordinator (RRSC) pilot program to provide enhanced remote support to senior residents sheltering in place at home, especially those without access to an on-site service coordinator. From a remote setting, the RRSC would contact residents to ensure basic needs were being met and minimize social isolation. Over nine months, more than 6,000 calls were made to seniors through this program across NCR communities in 25 states.
What have you learned in this challenging time? Will you make any permanent changes going?
Virtual check-ins proved to be a powerful model of service coordination for healthcare, housing and benefits enrollment. Further program evaluation is taking place to make this more available to properties and community seniors who do not have access to a service coordinator. We expect that virtual benefit enrollment assistance will become part of the future to reach more vulnerable seniors across our properties.
How does National Church Residences see the next three, six and 12 months progressing?
In the immediate future, NCR will continue to tackle Covid-related challenges to every sector of the aging services continuum. We will focus on keeping those in our care as safe as possible, while also doing everything we can to help our workforce recover from this harrowing time. We hope the coming months will show great progress in areas where disparities have been laid bare by the pandemic, like digital connectivity for vulnerable seniors.
Through our rigorous strategic planning process and board-driven goals, National Church Residences will focus on mission-driven initiatives to advance better living for seniors within our buildings and in the surrounding community. With an emphasis on social determinants of health and person-centric models of care delivery, NCR will continue to partner with payers and providers, explore emerging models of reimbursement for population health management with value-based care, and continue to develop innovative models of service delivery using technology.
What do you think will change about affordable housing over the next 5 years?
NCR believes that working at the intersection of housing and health care is critical to resolving the nation's health care problems. It’s an exciting time to be working in this space. For the first time, affordable housing is being seriously regarded as a critical element of the nation’s infrastructure – a designation which invites large scale capital investment in the production and preservation of affordable housing. At the same time, we believe that innovations in building design, digital connectivity, and enhanced on-site service provisions will truly make aging in place a viable and desirable option for many of our most vulnerable senior residents. It is our hope that the next 5 years will see the silos of housing and health care continue to give way to more holistic, integrated models.
What else should people know about National Church Residences?
Our seniors can struggle even in the most ideal conditions. With shelter in place orders in effect in most regions, obtaining items to meet their most basic needs was proving to be challenging. When the pandemic hit, our philanthropy team sprung into action to take advantage of the emergency funding opportunities that were suddenly available. In just a few short months, we were able to raise $1.8M, serving 99 of our communities in 11 states reaching over 7,000 of our residents. We were able to provide 157,248 masks, 1,958,890 in PPE items like gloves, gowns, goggles, and cleaning supplies, and nearly 57,000 meals were delivered to our seniors in Georgia. We’re so proud of our team for their quick and determined efforts to support residents and the organization.
To learn more about National Church Residences, visit their website.